Thursday, in the Health and Long-Term Care Committee, we held a hearing on my Medicine Stewardship bill, SB 5234. This legislation will require the pharmaceutical manufacturers, who profit handsomely from Washington's $4 billion annual prescription and over-the-counter drug purchases, to design and fund a process to take the unused medications back and dispose of them in a safe and environmentally sound manner. Washingtonians would be able to drop off their unused medications at their local pharmacies.
At the hearings for this legislation Thursday and last year, the most compelling testimony came from parents and grandparents of children who died from overdoses on prescription medication. In our state, drug overdose is the most common cause of accidental death, superseding car accidents and causing an average of two deaths per day. Prescription medications are the cause of the majority of these overdoses.
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